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conversation, just like every other adult. It had never been like this between them before. Anne had always given Maggie the feeling she could tell Anne anything, and Maggie had sometimes taken her up on it.
    Last summer she had been bombed on peppermint schnappes, and Anne covered for her. She'd held Maggie's head while Maggie threw up into the toilet, and she'd let Maggie spend the night, telling her mother that Maggie and Karen were telling ghost stories to each other. Naturally, the next day, Anne gave Maggie the obligatory lecture on how everyone tries things like drinking, it's natural, but never ever get into a car with someone who's had more than one beer.
    It depressed Maggie to have Anne suddenly talking to her just like any other adult.
    “Junior year,” Anne repeated. “Getting ready to look at colleges?”
    “Yes,” Maggie said, wanting to scream.
    “That's good.” Anne brightened, as if she'd discovered the perfect conversational groove. “Still painting your nails, I see. Nice color.”
    “It's called Very Cherry,” Maggie said. She'd borrowed the polish from Vanessa, and they'd both had a good chuckle, seeing as neither of them had been very cherry for quite some time.
    “Pretty. Goes well with—”
    “So, why did you and Matt break up?” Maggie asked in a rush. She thought her head would explode if Anne didn't quit being so polite.
    “I caught him with someone else.”
    “You're kidding. Another woman?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Uncle Matt?” Maggie was blown away. She had to steady herself, leaning against the refrigerator.
    “Uncle Matt. Remember last summer, when he flew home to New York on business and I went back after him?”
    “Right, and you left Karen with—” The words were out, and Maggie couldn't get them back. A gush of heat spread through her face.
    “With you. Thank you, by the way. In case I never actually thanked you before. You were such a big help,” Anne said, as if she were just thanking Maggie for any old babysitting job, as if there would be a thousand more to come.
    “Oh God. You're welcome.”
    “I guess I was a little preoccupied, when I came back to the island,” Anne continued. “See, Matt hadn't gone to New York on business. He had a girlfriend. Tisa. It's really pathetic, but I found them in bed.”
    “Oh my God.” Maggie's eyes glittered with the delectability of having this conversation with Anne. She had once caught Kurt making out with Shelly Marshall, and she remembered that ice-cold shock, that heart-stopping moment when you realized that you were seeing exactly what you thought you were seeing.
    “I haven't told your mother. I haven't told anyone,” Anne said. “You, Matt, Tisa, and I are the only ones who know.”
    “Everyone thinks . . .” Maggie began, but she couldn't say the words: that Matt left because you let Karen fall out the window.
    “Your mother doesn't. She knows there were other problems. There always are in marriages. You just hope . . . anyway, it's too embarrassing to give her the details. She's my older sister, after all,” Anne said, and for once her smile was real enough to touch every part of her face.
    “Yeah, she might not handle it too well,” Maggie said.
    “There's something about your mother, Maggie, that makes me want to be my best,” Anne said. “It's always been that way. My own mother was way less strict than her.”
    “And your parents drowned fishing in a rowboat only twenty yards from shore and Mom had to take on the responsibility of the bakery and raising you and she had to give up all her dreams of going to college or ever getting off this island but looking back it's the best thing that ever happened because now she knows the value of a dollar and the island is the only place she'd ever want to live including Paris.” Maggie knew the story by heart, even better than she knew her prayers.
    Anne was laughing out loud, and that made Maggie smile. She twirled the silver snake ring Kurt had given her,